Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap
Gender Pay Gap
Companies with more than 250 staff have to report their gender pay gap. Everyone’s salary is included in one of these bands:
| Pay Distribution by Quartile* |
Male |
Female |
| Upper Quartile |
67% (increased) |
33% (decreased) |
| Upper Middle Quartile |
41% (decreased) |
59% (increased) |
| Lower Middle Quartile |
42% (decreased) |
58% (increased) |
| Lower Quartile |
68% (increased) |
32% (decreased) |
The lower quartile includes entry level jobs in estate cleaning and horticulture and administration whilst the upper quartile includes the higher paid executive team, senior management and specialist roles. It’s important to note that Poplar HARCA pays men and women the same salary for doing similar jobs. The gap which exists is because we still have more men employed in the upper and lower quartiles.
What is Poplar HARCA doing to close the gap?
We continue to offer development opportunities to all our staff. We’ve just completed our reverse mentoring programme which saw members of our Staff Executive (non-managerial staff from across the business) paired with executive team members. In 2025 we are launching our People Strategy. Improving Poplar HARCA’s development offer to staff is a central focus of that strategy, alongside cultural inclusion and engagement.
Our investment in general skills development and EDI initiatives continues to have a positive effect. Our hourly median pay rate stands at 0% – which means that the hourly earnings midpoint for both women and men at HARCA is the same. Meanwhile our mean gender pay gap (the difference between the hourly average earnings for men and women) has increased slightly this year, from 6 to 8%.
What about bonuses?
Poplar HARCA has a bonus gender pay gap of 33% this year. This bonus pay gap exists because, whilst all non-executive team employees are eligible to receive the same flat bonus, it is reduced pro rata for those who commence employment part way through the year and/or who work part time – and the majority of our part time employees are female. In addition, whilst all executive team members are eligible to receive the same performance related bonus, it should be noted that there are fewer women in this group.
Ethnicity Pay Gap
The ethnicity pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between staff from ethnic minority backgrounds in a workforce, compared to members of staff from a ‘White’ background.
Our mean ethnicity pay gap is 9%
Having an ethnicity pay gap does not mean that we pay BME staff less than non-BME staff to perform the same role. It reflects that we have less BME staff in the bottom and upper quartile of our workforce.